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Bike Clothes for Commuters Start to Appear - Cordarounds!

One of my frequent observations about cycling and commuting is that most of the clothing you see is made for recreational cyclists. I wear a couple of items myself that, although I prefer not to be on the road without them, are pretty clearly made for roadies.

The primary one is my Pearl Izumi Vagabond Ii Jacket. Although I love it, and it's kept me safe and dry since I've had it, I don't like how it binds around the shoulders and arms when I'm wearing it to work. I don't wear a bike jersey to work, I generally wear a plain t-shirt in the summer and my work shirt during the spring or fall when it's cooler and I don't perspire as much. And in the winter I'm wearing an UnderArmor ColdGear shirt and a fleece underneath it, so that's a bit bulky, too. I'd like to have a jacket that's a little looser, but still has that high-visibility fabric. So far I haven't found one.

Well, the folks at Cordarounds have come to our rescue by introducing their Bike To Work pants. These are khakis that look perfectly normal for your everyday work. But, when you're ready to ride, you roll up the cuffs (which most of us do anyway to avoid chain grease spatter) and they have reflective tape built into the inner lining of the pants! And the pockets pull out to sport the same reflectivity! And the cuffs themselves are made of protective Iluminite teflon for extra strength.

This is exactly the sort of thing that I hope we can plan to see more of in the future as bike commuters become a bigger market force. Thanks to the folks at Cordarounds for their work in making us some pants that serve two purposes!

Comments

I try to do the same thing most of the time myself, unless I'm going to sweat so much that my work clothes wouldn't be particularly presentable once I got where I was going. In fact, one of the criteria I have for commuter gear is that it allow us to operate as normally as possible, without having to change clothes and the like.

The thing I like about these Cordarounds pants is that they combine cycling with normal life - they can absolutely BE those regular work clothes you're talking about.

Hey Jamie... I've been reading a blog hosted by our local paper recently, and I thought you might enjoy it. It's thoughts from a Lawrence bike commuter, and he recently finished a series on the heightened sensory experience he gets while biking to work. You might be able to relate... or maybe you have a different set of smells, sights, etc. in Columbus.

The Dispatch report that Columbus Rides Bikes shared on Facebook today is entitled "More crashes come with more bicycle traffic on dedicated lanes," and discusses the new lanes and the number of accidents that have happened there. None of these accidents/crashes has been fatal.

So... you can read the article and get the statistics. Here's a summary of them, though, with a quote from the article:
...the number of crashes has jumped. Between 2012 and 2015, there were five crashes involving bicycles on Summit between Hudson and East 5th Avenue.…

In a move that has left quite a few people stranded in Columbus, the ride-sharing company Car2Go has announced today that they're pulling out of the local market as of May 31.

car2go is saddened to announce that we have made the difficult decision to suspend our operations in Columbus as of May 31. Read why here: https://t.co/gRSibUhotB
— car2go Columbus (@car2goColumbus) May 24, 2018
This has got me more than a little pissed off and very inconvenienced.

There's no doubt - Car2Go improved the quality of my family's life for the past few years while they were active in town. As a one-car family where I rode my bike and took the bus most days, Car2Go filled in the gap nicely when we needed that extra set of wheels to get ourselves places.

Here's the news they sent out via their website today:

HELLO,
We’re writing to let you know that after careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue car2go service in Columbus, effective May 31, 2018.
In 201…

I've been out with the flu for a few days (no, I'm not oinking), and I missed this surprising post from Jeff Stephens of Consider Biking back on October 9th. Suffice to say that Jeff took some time to sit back and watch the behavior of our city's cyclists, and was dismayed at what he saw. I'm in complete agreement with Jeff on this issue. Simply too many Columbus cyclists do not obey the law. But let's look at the reasons that Jeff proposed in his commentary: Why are you riding this way? Are you so self-absorbed, that the world revolves around you? Are you just opportunistic since the bicycle gives you the opportunity to cheat traffic? Are you “expressing yourself” with your nonchalant coolness, hipness, whatever? Or, do you just not know any better? Do you just follow the example of the guy/gal in front of you because you’re new to urban bicycling? (I think it’s the latter.)Jeff's statement breaks the possible reasons for this behavior down into two extrem…